Tuesday Dinners

Step by Step Directions

This is a recipe that works a lot better if you do the prep work before you turn on the stove, you can ignore that advice if you want, but don’t say you weren’t nudged in the right direction.

Begin by chopping your vegetables up (I did this so I could reuse the same cutting board but didn’t cross contaminate with the chicken). For the vegetables you should be aiming for a consistent cut (about the same size as the chicken), or you can Slap-Chop the heck out of them, up to you.

For this recipe I decided to add bell pepper and jalapenos, this is completely optional but I like the added color and flavor.

Because I don’t like doing the dishes (note the paper plate above) I used the same cutting board for the chicken.

Chicken breast was on sale at the store so that’s what I got. I’m making two pounds of chicken (and 2 onions, 2 cups of rice, etc.) because this was a part of meal prep for the week. If you’re using bone-in I would buy more than a single pound of chicken and you don’t need to cut up the thighs at that point.

Here I just tried to cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.

At this point I would grab all your spices, your rice, your stock, etc. and make sure it is ready to go. But, if you ignored my earlier advice then never mind, don’t do that.

Add your oil to the bottom of the pan and turn the heat up to medium-high (you can cook at a lower temp if you want to, it’ll just be slower).

Add your paprika, salt, and pepper. I’ve seen measurements vary for amounts but I tend to do a teaspoon of each and then adjust as I need.

Once the oil is warmed up we are going to add our chicken.

Do not immediately start stirring the chicken. We want to create some browning on it, sear it into the pan. Once the chicken has started sticking to the bottom then scrape it off and start stirring.

About halfway through I like to add some flour and create the beginning of a gravy by mixing it in with the chicken fat (this is completely optional).

Once the chicken is cooked remove it with a spoon, keeping as much liquid in the pan as you can.

[Picture is at beginning of cooking process]

You should have a nice oil/chicken fat mixture at the bottom of your pan, at this point it will be time to add the rice. You should turn down the heat on the stove now.

Add the rice to the pan and mix it once to cover the rice in oil and then let it sit in the pan, stirring only occasionally. We want the rice to toast/brown in the oil, getting darker but not burning to the bottom of the pan (if it does stick don’t worry, we’ll be deglazing it with the chicken stock).

Once the rice has browned we want to add the rest of our vegetables to the pan.

We want to mix the rice in with the rest of the ingredients and then cook until our onions are beginning to become translucent.

Now it’s time to add the rest of our ingredients to the pan. You can just throw them all in together, no real rhyme or reason. We just want to make sure that the liquid is covering all the contents of the pan at this point.

I added corn and peas because I was recently yelled at to include more vegetables in my life, and then was told that corn isn’t the kind of vegetable that I should be including. But, corn is somewhat traditional in this recipe, kale is not.

Follow the directions for cooking your rice, in my case it recommended 15-20 minutes on low after being brought to a boil. I covered it, walked away to let it cook and the whole house started smelling amazing.

Once your timer is up you should be ready to eat, if your rice isn’t cooked yet then let it simmer for a bit longer. Resist the urge to eat it out of the pan, it will be very hot.

Enjoy.

Variations

• There’s a large debate over chicken breast vs chicken thighs vs bone-in chicken thighs. They all have merit, but just grab what is available to you
• Add anything from the optional ingredients, or your own ingredients. Some recipes use a sofrito instead of just onions, do what you think tastes good
• Add hot sauce at the same stage as the chicken stock, this will help give your dish a more vibrant color and can add some additional spice/heat
• Cook this meal in a crock pot/slow cooker, you won’t get the same sear on the chicken or the same browning on the rice but it will be delicious

Unsolicited Feedback

• PP: How do you make rice and chicken taste so good?
• SL: It’s not quite spicy enough, can you pass the hot sauce?
• MN: Why is it called arroz [writer’s note: they said it like “arrows”] con pollo? Just call it chicken and rice.